Children at schools in the Forest of Dean are lagging behind the rest of the county when it comes to exam results, and Gloucestershire County Council is so concerned it set up a special task group to investigate.

Only half of Forest of Dean pupils achieve the benchmark of five GCSEs at grade A*-C including English and Maths, compared to the Gloucestershire average of 61.9%.

Surplus school places, financial issues, and low levels of aspiration are some of the reasons identified by the group.

With too many places available in the Forest, it's prompted the chairman of the task group, Richard Leppington to ask whether one of the schools should close.

All of the secondary schools in the Forest of Dean have been placed in special measures at one time over the last three years, apart from Dene Magna which was consistently rated as outstanding.

Councillors established the task group last May to find out what challenges the five schools face, as well as what they are doing well.

The task group, comprising a group of county councillors, visited Dene Magna, Forest High School, Lakers School, Dean Academy, and Newent Community School in November to find out more about the issues the secondary schools face.

They reported its findings earlier this year.

Surplus places across all the schools, apart from at Dene Magna, is part of the problem.

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“Some families opt to send their children to schools in Gloucester, but a greater number opt to send their children across the borders into Herefordshire and Wales. A particular impact here is that school funding is linked to student numbers; this introduces financial challenges that do not help these schools to address their challenges,” state the task group.

Richard Leppington

The group was chaired by former county councillor Richard Leppington, who represented the Forest of Dean until he lost his ward in the election in May.

"One of the main factors we found was the number of children in the Forest is not sufficient for the number of school places available.

"You have to ask the question whether six secondary schools are sustainable. It needs a joined up debate.

"What we cannot continue to do is fail our children."

"Another issue the was the low level of expectation and aspiration among the children and parents. There's a general perception that the kids in the forest don't aspire to much."

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The geography of the forest made recruitment of teachers difficult, and children are also disadvantaged because there is no school in the central forest area where they can do A-levels. They have to travel to Chepstow and Newent.

Financial difficulties and young people leaving to attend schools outside the Forest of Dean were identified as challenges.

The ability to attract and recruit sufficient high quality teachers into the Forest was identified as a significant issue by four out of five schools.

The question of how to improve a school’s reputation in was another issue, and this was exacerbated by the poor condition of some school buildings.

The government’s Regional Schools Commissioner for the south west has identified the Forest of Dean as a priority area.

Dean Academy in Lydney

Headteacher of the Dean Academy in Lydney, Tom Beveridge said significant improvements were being made.

“We are working with the local community and very closely with other schools in the Forest and there is a lot of positive movement.

“The group flagged up issues that many schools face, such as financial issues, and recruitment , which is a big issue across education.

“I don’t think it’s fair for forest families in the forest should feel like they should need to transport children outside the forest . We have a duty to be a true community school and a school of choice, so that families don’t feel the need to travel.”

Dean Academy was placed in ‘special measures’ after being rated inadequate by Ofsted in 2015.

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However the latest monitoring visit by Ofsted published today has found that the school is making significant progress.

The council’s task group recommended that Gloucestershire County Council hold a ‘select committee’ style meeting with the Regional Schools Commissioner to address the educational issues in the Forest of Dean.

The Forest of Dean Schools - how are they doing?

The Dean Academy was placed in special measures by Ofsted in October 2015. However the latest monitoring report says it is making good progress under the current leadership with new headteacher Tom Beveridge appointed a year ago.

Dene Magna has received consistently outstanding Ofsted judgements. The school is popular, oversubscribed and is expanding.

The Forest High School was rated as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in 2015 and improvement has been slow. The school is small and has related challenges regarding funding and its ability to offer a broad curriculum. New headteacher Paul Holroyd was appointed in January.

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Lakers School was placed in “special measures” in December 2015 by Ofsted, however has made good progress since. It has now become an academy and has joined the Greenshaw Learning Trust, and will be renamed a Five Acres High School and with a new headteacher, Ben Parnell in September.

Newent Community School and Sixth Form Centre Newent was judged to require special measures in January 2013 but in its inspection of January 2014 it was rated ‘good’. The new head took up his post in September 2016.

Wyedean School and Sixth Form Centre was placed in special measures in 2013; however it was rated ‘good’ in November 2014. The school is near the Welsh border and consequently attracts children from the neighbouring Chepstow. The task group did not visit this school.